Free Minds & Free Markets

Information is BeautifulAccording to a disturbingly
pleasant graphic from Information is Beautiful entitled
simply
20th Century Death, communism was the leading
ideological cause of death between 1900 and 2000. The 94 million
that perished in China, the Soviet Union, North Korea, Afghanistan,
and Eastern Europe easily (and tragically) trump the 28 million
that died under fascist regimes during the same period.

During the century measured, more people died as a result of
communism than from homicide (58 million) and genocide (30 million)
put together. The combined death tolls of WWI (37 million) and WWII
(66 million) exceed communism’s total by only 9 million.

It gets worse when you look at the lower right of the chart—The
Natural World—which includes animals (7 million), natural disasters
(24 million), and famine (101 million). Curiously, all of the
world’s worst famines during the 20th century were in
communist countries: China (twice!), the Soviet Union, and North
Korea.

Communism is a killer. And yet some still say they support the
idea: According
to a 2011 Rasmussen poll, 11% of Americans think that communism
would better serve this country’s needs than our current
system.